Kids can travel the world with iPad apps

With an iPad and a few great apps, you can broaden your kids' view of our planet without ever getting on an airplane. Here are two outstanding apps that take kids on exciting adventures and, in the process, teach them about geography, science and animals. This is one of the best educational apps for kids on the iPad. It looks gorgeous, has a ton of educational information and is delivered in the format of an adventure with friendly aliens. In "Ansel &Clair's Adventures in Africa," kids join Ansel, an alien, and his cute robotic companion named Clair. Ansel and Clair have come to Earth to learn about and photograph Africa. As they approach the African continent, their spaceship malfunctions and spews parts all over Africa. Kids help Ansel and Clair find the missing spaceship parts by exploring three regions of Africa: the Serengeti Plains; the Sahara Desert; and the Nile Valley. As they investigate each region, the screen fills with animals and vegetation common to that area. By tapping on an animal or plant, kids can learn more about it. The option to dig even deeper is present because you can access additional factual screens if you so desire. Once you learn about an animal, Ansel asks you to use his camera to capture a photo; and when you do, it is automatically transferred to your own Travel Log. Sometimes this animal interaction will yield a missing spaceship part. In addition to learning about animals and taking photos, the game also integrates puzzles and mini-games into the story. Kids will navigate through a maze found in an Egyptian pyramid, arrange parts of a frog's life cycle into the correct order and reunite baby animals with their parents. The game also encourages you to change the time of day so that you can see the Sahara at day as well as at night. In the process, kids learn about nocturnal animals, sandstorms and the extreme temperatures of the desert. Likewise, kids can move away the clouds to change the seasons from wet to dry on the Serengeti. This allows the app to teach about animal migrations, and to show kids what the two radically different seasons look like. Ansel's insatiable curiosity will help kids identify with him. For example, in his enthusiasm to learn more about a lion, Ansel moves close to it, only to have it roar and scare him. Likewise, when Ansel gets too close to a vulture, the big bird almost vomits on him; but, in the process, Clair uses this event to explain that vultures are carnivores. Playing this app is like playing a deep edutainment computer game. Kids will love playing with Ansel in the lovely African scenes. The story is supported by audio, so even kids who can't yet read can enjoy the game. It is also accompanied by a delightful African-themed musical score. This is a hidden gem in the iTunes store and is perfect for kids ages 4-10. Rating: 4 stars (out of 4) 'The Magic School Bus: Oceans' (From Scholastic, best for ages 5-10, $7.99, for iPad) Ms. Frizzle is back, and this time, she's on the iPad, taking her class into the ocean. Based on Joanna Cole's "The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor" book, this app adds videos and games into the book's story. As usual, Ms. Frizzle's school bus magically transforms — this time into a submarine, so that it can dive right into the ocean. Kids join Ms. Frizzle's students on their underwater adventure as The Friz takes the kids to see marine plants and animals up close. The app offers 11 videos and more than 25 photos as kids learn about whales, squid, starfish, flounder, dolphins, sharks and more. And there are eight interactive games. In one, kids will help a creature to swim by doing special hand motions on the iPad's screen. For a squid, they will need to pinch the screen to imitate the squid's jet propulsion. In another activity, kids can look at plankton by moving slides under a microscope. Since the words of the story highlight on the page as they are read by over 20 individual voices, even non-readers can enjoy this app. Kids can also interact with the pages by tapping on speech bubbles and objects on the page, and by exploring the mini-games that appear seamlessly within the story.